Many online shoppers shy away from transacting through websites of lesser known online merchants due to fear of payment card data compromise on illegitimate merchant websites. Many more courageous cardholders unknowingly transact on illegitimate merchant websites and their payment cards are subsequently used fraudulently. As a result, a high percentage of cardholders do not shop online or, if they do, they use alternative payment methods such as bank transfers or PayPal™. There is therefore a need for a website verification system so that cardholders can check and verify that a website is legitimate before entering their payment card details.
More generally, a website verification system could be used so that internet users can check that other (e.g. non-merchant) websites are legitimate before trusting the information provided on them.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a method and system for website verification that helps to ameliorate the afore-mentioned problems.